Many companies have received economic benefits from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policy of "Abenomics." However, according to new information reported in the Wall Street Journal, the corporate share of those profits has not been distributed to workers. Profits are up, but they are not being shared with workers. The statistics, which have been compiled since 1990, show that workers are getting a smaller piece of the pie than ever.
The labor share of value added is a rough measure of how much workers receive relative to what companies make. It is one measure of the fairness level of overall distribution of benefits from companies. In the April-June quarter, the labor share fell to 58 percent, the lowest level since 1992. At the same time, corporate profits have continued to rise.
Though Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda broke with tradition in 2014 to ask that companies not sit on their accumulating profits, but instead raise worker pay, that has not happened. Executives are clearly not yet listening to his entreaties and are instead letting wages fall to the smallest share in over two decades.